Dear Renee: Happy Birthday, even though it is one day late! Guess what? You are not alone - far from it. Please Google Ontario Horticultural Association. Once you enter the site, click on Societies and then go to Ottawa - there you are! The Ottawa Hort Society has over 300 members and they are all crazy for gardening like you and me! They meet every month and the next meeting is Jan 24 with a talk (and slides) on gardens in Ireland. I myself am a member of the Manotick Hort Society. We have about 130 members. The goal of most societies is the exchange of garden information, plants, seeds, cuttings, also learning more about gardening, holding plant sales (where terrific bargains are available from the gardens of the members) And this year is VERY special because the Ottawa Society is hosting the 100th Annual Meeting of all the Hort Societies in Ontario. This will be a huge 3-day gathering of gardeners from all over Ontario in mid-August. The best reason for attending a meeting of a garden club (or Horticultural society) is that you get to meet wonderful people who love gardening. Some of my best friends are people I have met through my garden club. So Renee, hope to see you at a garden club meeting soon! Your cuttings, your plant offshoots and extras will be welcome come about May when sales are held!

Wow, you guys are seriously awesome! I am still digesting a lot of the information. I also posted the original layout of our crappy kitchen, with the frig sticking out, the mudroom, the pantry, etc, in case you guys have any more ideas. I should put dims on it, but the kitchen is just about 13 feet long and 10 feet wide, the door openings that exist are 30". To answer a few questions, yes, I already have planned to move the range a bit farther from the corner, with a shorter cabinet for more space on either side of it. We are hoping that we can remove that bit of wall that separates the refrigerator, since it makes it far away. We dont know (its supporting, part of original house and we may need a post to support the beam we are putting in). A lot of you have mentioned closing the bottom door to the kitchen.I def. think that is worth exploring. I was worried you'd come in the house and see a wall, but in fact straight ahead are stairs and to the left is a wide open view of the LR. On the other hand. we can't open up that wall where the range is, as bpathome suggested, because it supports stairs above. It has to stay where it is, but we can close it off. A 6 ft opening would certainly give us more kitchen wall, but we wouldn't have much in the way of seating in something in the opening (unless you mean like a 6 ft passthrough window with a bar, which is a possibilitiy). We could just do an opening, though without a counter or island. The real problems with our space are that due to the counter next to the range, you can't have a counter too far down, since it will be cramped to walk around that and the counter next to the range. On the other hand you cant move it too far up, because it will block the doorway that leads to the back and the bathroom. Robotropolis--we actually have a very big dining room, with lots of room to move a large table around. The real issue with the island seating not our dining room, is the issues mentioned above with the tight spaces. Buehl, you're awesme for these designs. The window size is flexible, the location is flexible only in that we might close it to have cabinets running across (tthe view is of the house across the way, we will get light in from our very luminous dining room if we open it up, and the extremely sunny, southern exposure french doors, plus another window near the frig). I like your layouts, esp C, but I think we would move an island or counter furhter into the opening/bridging the large dining room with what is already a rather cramped kitchen.....

FYI...this thread is linked in the "Other Items of Interest" topic in the "New to Kitchens? Read Me First!" thread. So, there shouldn't be a need to bump this thread up to the top and knock someone else's request for help today off the first page.

I am trying to make an edit, but am not able to: The essential question is, which of these 3 options seems the best? Or is there another alternative we are not thinking of for the door configuration to get the indoor/outdoor feeling. Thank you!!